'Cal there's a car parked in front of mine, did you have a friend stay last night.'

Cal looked down to see Matt was still sleeping, smiling he grabbed Matt's keys and shoved a pillow and blanket on his couch as he headed for the door. Swinging open the door to his dad he smiled.

'Morning, sorry about that Matt stayed the night.' He said grinning as he left the door open and walked passed his father. Jack intrigued looked in to see Matt in Cal's bed, he was extremely surprised until he noticed the blanket and pillow on the couch and smiling followed his son upstairs.

'I'll see you at your karate comp this afternoon' he said smiling at his son as he walked back past from moving the car.

'Cool, you haven't seen me in a comp since mid last year' Cal said his grin widening.

'Cal?' he heard shouted from inside, waving goodbye to his father he jogged back inside his muscles screaming at him.

'Up here' he said heading for the stairs only to meet Matt at the top.

'I thought you were asleep?' he said smiling at him.

'I was until my sister just rang, my parents are freaking.' Cal frowned

'Didn't you tell them where you were going?' he asked heading to the kitchen and pouring them both a glass of Apple Juice.

Matt shook his head 'I was upset that you wouldn't return any of my messages or calls so I ran out the house and came over here, dad tried to stop me but I just ignored him'

Matt smiled 'well time to face the music I guess, can I call you later?' he asked standing

'Defiantly, I have a karate comp on this afternoon, dads coming for the first time in ages so I need to get ready, thanks to last night I'm a little stiff so I'll be here all day' Cal said smiling and walking Matt to the door.

'I can't believe I stayed the night?' Matt said grinning

'It was nice, I hope we can do it again' Cal said giving him a hug.

'Yes I would like that' Matt said pulling back and lightly pecking Cal on the lips before quickly turning and heading for his car.

Cal was extremely happy the competition had gone extremely well and the grin on his father's face hadn't disappeared since they had returned home. The only thing that was keeping his grin from being as wide as his father's was that Matt hadn't called; he was worried that he had gotten him in trouble. But in the middle of dinner came a call, his father always got calls during dinner so at first thought nothing of it until his father came back his grin even wider if that was possible.

'It's for you, she says her name is Jess' Cal's head snapped up in surprise and quickly jumped up.

'Jess?' he asked into the phone.

'Hey Callum, my brother asked me to call you, he said he promised you he would.'

'Okay?' he said frowning a little.

'Anyway father grounded him for not telling him whose friend's house he was staying over at so he's not allowed out of the house or use the phone until tomorrow he asked me to call and tell you that he'll be at the skate bowl at 9 tomorrow morning.' She said

'Thanks Jess, tell him I'll meet him there' Cal said grinning.

'Okay I'll see you later then' she said hanging up.

Grinning Cal returned to the dinner table

'so who's Jess' his father asked smiling

'She's Matt's sister, their twins you know' he said stirring the peas around his plate, the grin so wide his fathers widened yet again at his sons.

As the weeks passed Matt and Cal grew closer together, it was never uncommon to see them messing around with their friends during school or after but more often then not they would take their free time together, not that they had much, the only real time they got together was in last period sport when Cal was still teaching Matt to swim........ not that he needed it any more. He was now just as good as everyone else in the school and they spent the time hugging and kissing and not having to worry about running into their friends. Most their time was spend in sport or Matt helping his sister. But neither resented it they both understood the others wants and needs and they learned to accept it. It was coming to the end of term and Cal had a fantastic idea.

'Hey Matt!' he said racing up to him after last period

'Hey Cal' Matt said grinning

'What are you doing this weekend?' he asked following him over to his car.

'Nothing much, Dad said something about Beach cricket but knowing him that will never get started.'

'Well I know it's a bit sudden but usually during the holidays I head up with a friend to a great dive spot up the coast, I was wondering if this time you would like to come.'

Matt grinned it sounded like heaven to him.

'Will I need to bring anything?' he asked excitedly

'Nope I have all the diving gear up at the beach house already, you'll just need a couple changes of clothes' he said grinning

'What time are we leaving?' Matt asked

'Well we can leave tonight or tomorrow morning?'

'Tomorrow morning will be better for my parents to accept' Matt said swinging into his car.

'Cool I'll pick you up tomorrow morning at 5 then.' Cal said waving as he took off.

Matt was extremely excited, this he figured was Cal's way of telling him he was ready for the next step in their relationship, he himself had felt like it was time for at least two weeks but hadn't known how to breach the subject. He'd been up since 3 and packed for the warm weather, but now he was just sitting and waiting for Cal to show up, it was 430 when his parents got up to say goodbye, his mother making him and Cal a collection of sandwiches for lunch before going through all her safety rules.

Matt heard a car pull up but it didn't sound like Cal's 4wd so he took a look out the window and grinned, Cal had brought his Ford Tungsten GT, he had yet to see him ride in it and was suddenly looking forward to the 3 hour trip.

'He's here! Bye mum, Bye Dad' he said hugging them and dashing out the door and over to Cal who was just opening the boot.

'Morning' Cal said grinning

'Quick if Dad finds out that were going in this he'll kill me' Matt said watching as Cal grinned and jumped in the car and took off just as Matt's father came outside to wave goodbye and his eyes went wide.

'Whoa that was close' Matt said grinning and laughing.

'I didn't realise your father was so controlling' Cal said moving his hand over and squeezing Matt's who smiled at the affectionate touch.

'He's not normally, just with cars now because of the accident.' Matt said smiling over at him.

The drive wasn't long just 3 hours, and Matt was amazed when they pulled up to the most beautiful cottage on a large section of land.

'Wow' he said getting out and staring at the beach and surroundings

'It's my great grandparent's first house, we can't knock it down because it's the oldest building in the area but we were allowed to fix it up inside, it's awesome it has the largest fireplace but only one bedroom.' Cal noticed the grin split Matt's face and frowned he wondered suddenly if Matt thought he had brought him up here for a romantic weekend away. He started to get a little anxious as they both placed their bags in the bedroom and headed out to the beach.

'It's so calm out there' Matt said looking to the flat ocean as they walked along the sand. He jumped in surprise as Cal's hand slipped into his. He looked down then back up into Cal's eyes to see them sparkling.

'I thought you were still in the closet?' he asked looking around to see a few morning runners on the beach.

'I am at home but I know very few people up here, I see this place as somewhere I can be myself.' Cal explained as they let the ocean slowly drape across their feet as they watched the morning sun light up the water every time the waves broke. Finally as they came to the end of the beach with only one person within view but not yet close enough to see them, Cal pulled Matt down into a sitting position next to him and started pointing to a few areas he wanted to check out when they went scuba diving in a few hours.

Matt was watching Cal's face as he talked of the sites, the things he'd seen there and for the first time in over a month he saw the excitement and joy in Cal's eyes. It had been a long month one he knew Cal had struggled in. He knew it had something to do with his father always being away. He had confronted him just two days ago about the subject and had watched as Cal had nearly cried telling him about his feelings. He remembered that conversation now.

----------------

'It's nothing Matt, just forget about it.' He had said turning away from looking at me. I could see the pain in his eyes.

'It isn't nothing Cal, something's bothering you and its making you all depressed' I admitted in a slightly angry voice.

'I'm not DEPRESSED, now just leave me alone' he had yelled, standing and grabbing his towel and moving off to his exercise room.

'It isn't nothing Cal, whatever is going on is hurting you, you can't hide it from me I'm your boyfriend I see it whenever I look into your eyes.' He had slowed at me yelling back at him. I never yelled as I didn't like it.

'I..........I guess I'm just annoyed at dad' he finally admitted, I was surprised I knew he had been upset about his fathers work schedule but he had explained that he usually settled back down after a few weeks.

'He's still working really hard?' I asked watching and following as Cal sat back into his couch. His shoulders slumped and head down.

'I know its selfish Matt but I just can't help it. We used to have dinner every night except Mondays, on Friday nights we always went out for dinner then on the weekend he would come to at least one of my competitions, once he even brought a potential client to a fencing match because it was the semi finals and he didn't want to miss it. He swore to me last week that he would come to my finals for Karate but he never showed, I waited until right before I went on, I'm afraid I took out my anger on my component.'

I listened as he took a heavy sigh, I knew he was hurting, I had been here only 3 months but in that time I had heard and seen how much Cal idolised his father. Sometime I had seen them interact and wished my father would be more like that.... More a friend than a father I soon realised.

'It's not selfish Cal, This last two months your father hasn't spent a single weekend here, even when he's in the country, I remember you saying he had to spend a week in America and two weeks in Japan. You need to sit down and tell him how you feel' I explained but I knew I had hit a nerve.

'I tried!' he had yelled jumping up.

'Well then you just have to try again! Now before you bite my head off and we both say something we don't actually mean lets go blow some steam off, shall we.'

--------------

That had been the end of the conversation as far as he was concerned, I was still worried but I hoped he knew I was there for him.

'Hey your Jack Taal's son right?' a women barely 20 with long blonde hair and dark brown eyes, a wide smile and very fit physique said running past and pausing.

Matt watched Cal's eyes widen in surprise.

'Ummm Yeah' he said standing. I stood up with him and shook the girls hand as she introduced herself.

'Hi, I'm Danny, Aaron's little sister' she said smiling

Callum frown for a minute like he was trying to remember who Aaron was

'Ummm your fathers boyfriend?' she said noticing his confusion. I couldn't help it my jaw dropped to the floor and if it could have gone further I'm sure it would have. I hadn't noticed Cal's face remain impassive or that Danny had kept talking.

'He's been so nice to my brother, so understanding, it's been great having him around he's really made Aaron happy, I know he lives in the city somewhere but still he goes out of his way nearly every weekend to be here for him. Why just last week he flew in from Japan and took Aaron to England with him for a holi......day.' She must have noticed the pale face of Cal's just like me, I was extremely worried I'd never seen him like this before. There was absolutely no emotion on his face at all.

'Did I say something wrong?' Danny asked. I could tell she was worried.

'He hasn't been feeling well lately is all, I'm Matt by the way' I said putting a hand on her shoulder.

'Well, tell your Dad I said hi when he gets to the house tonight, I'm pretty sure he and Aaron will be staying there. It's nice meeting you both, I hope you get well' she said shaking Matt's hand once again and resuming her run.

I took Cal's arm and without even looking up he let me drag him back to the house. I wasn't expecting him to break down, but when he did I realised this must have been building up for a while. Holding him i brought him to the couch and just held him letting him scream and cry into my t-shirt, I didn't understand everything that had been going on and I wanted to hear the whole story, I knew he hadn't been telling me the truth, just finding out his father was Gay wouldn't do this. Eventually he calmed down.

'You need to tell me everything that has happened' I told him, I expected him to refuse, to pull away and sware at me and so when he just started talking I knew he was hurting.